The SF Site Series Review: Ivory Trilogy by Doris Egan

Ivory Trilogy

Doris Egan

DAW Books

Volume 1	Gates of Ivory
Volume 2	Two-Bit Heros
Volume 3	Guilt-Edged Ivory



Doris Egan Doris Egan works on a television series and does advertising copy occasionally (the backs of the X-Files videos, for example). She's currently working on a detailed outline of a book/feature film and then plans to write two scripts and a 700-page novel. She's also working on the sequel to City of Diamond, which she wrote under the name of Jane Emerson. Doris Egan Website ISFDB Bibliography

A review by Peter D. Tillman

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Anthropology student Theodora of Pyrene is stranded on Ivory, the one planet in known space where magic works. She is hired as an apprentice by a rich, handsome sorcerer... Okay, the plot has been used before, but so what? These books are pretty near perfect. Very snappy and amusing dialogue (and monologue):

...I had a major scare. There was blood on the boulder I'd been sitting on... I was shocked and frightened, sure that I was hemorrhaging internally...
I'd taken a couple of steps back to the camp when I remembered there was another and less harmful cause of bleeding in a female... I'd had the usual implants, right on the dot, every three years... It occurred to me that besides the inconvenience, I was now capable of becoming pregnant -- involuntarily pregnant. What a concept!

I can't think of anyone in SF who writes better light action-adventure -- I don't know why her books haven't gotten more attention. I've just finished re-reading Gates of Ivory (which prompted this review) and enjoyed it more than the first time.

If you haven't yet encountered the Ivory Trilogy, you have a treat in store. You might start with the second volume, Two-Bit Heros -- my personal favorite. The first, Gates of Ivory, is now out of print but the others are not. You'll probably have to special-order them through your local book store.

Pete Tillman has been reading SF for better than 40 years now. He reviews SF -- and other books -- for Usenet, "Under the Covers", Infinity-Plus, Dark Planet, and SF Site. He's a mineral exploration geologist based in Arizona. More of his reviews are posted at www.silcom.com/~manatee/reviewer.html#tillman .